Favourite photo-spots: Craven Arms

Controlling an important junction south of Shrewsbury between the Marches Line to Newport and the Heart of Wales line to Llanelli is Craven Arms Crossing, which was once one of two signal boxes here, along with one at the station itself, some 300 yards to the south.

While the box itself looks more like an East German border post than a traditional signal box, and the station has long been reduced to basic “bus shelters” on each platform, the station footbridge and platform ends offer a splendid vantage point from which to appreciate the collection of lower quadrant semaphore signals that are a feature of the Marches Line.

With the station box now gone, southbound Heart of Wales line services pause at the signal box to pick up the single line token for the section to Knighton, before crossing to the northbound line just outside the station, then diverging onto the Llanelli route just south of the station platforms.

Like many other locations on this route, Craven Arms still boasts a goods loop – in this case on the southbound side of the line and just north of the signal box.